Prototype: UPGRADED
by Peacemaker01
Summary: Alex continues to fight the infected with all his might. But when he stumbles upon Pariah's father, he joins the military in an effort to find Pariah himself.
1. Chapter 1 The Information

Finally! my first story is here! I hope you all enjoy it and please don't hold back on the reviews! Give me all you got! Oh and if you're reading this Diffident Angel, I especially hope you like it as well! Give me your review please! Peacemaker01- out!

PROTOTYPE: UPGRADED

Chapter 1 Military infiltration

The infected have gotten worse. They're running all around the city now and the local government is starting to completely fall apart, some are either too useless against the threat or too chicken-shit to keep up the fight. Everything is becoming more and more dangerous now, and more difficult. Alex Mercer, however, remains strong against the infected, showing no weakness or limit to his powers.

At least….. not yet.

Alex ran up the building with bullets aimed and fired at his feet, keeping his enemy in sight.

A helicopter was following Mercer all the way to the top of the building, trying in vain to eliminate him. Once the top of the building was reached, Alex's right arm formed into his whipfist, and turned toward the helicopter that was following him close behind. As soon as Alex was in sight, the helicopter fired away a long series of bullets in an effort to kill him. Alex was too fast, and jumped up fifty feet into the air, and with his whipfist, smashed through the helicopter in one attack. As the helicopter burst into flames and split in two, the pieces fel out of the sky, and landed down on the surface below, crushing the streets, civilians, and no doubt the infected as well.

Alex landed back down on the building's roof top and took his whip, which had retaken the form of an arm and a hand, and rubbed his shoulder tightly.

"Damn military choppers. They're still giving me a hell of a hard time." said Alex. He walked toward the ledge of the building and looked all around the city. The streets and a few buildings were falling victim to fires and other people of the infected.

"I'm doing all that I can, but the infected just aren't going down." He looked a little bit longer at the burning city and the smell of gun powdered air. "The city is becoming worse and worse everyday. Sooner or later, the infected will destroy everything and all of Manhattan will be lost." said Alex continuing to look at the sad sight that is now Manhattan. The streets are constantly crowded and chaotic with running and screaming people, and howling infected. Alex took to his far right and got ready to move again.

"I better go see Dana. I hope she's doing okay." he thought. Alex jumped as high as he could off the building and glided towards Dana's and his safe house. Ever since Dana was captured and taken away by the military, Alex had to find a place for him at a different place where they could stay and be safe together. Alex found three places for them to hideout together, and today, Dana and he were supposed to be at place number two: a warehouse by the Hudson River. About ten minutes later, Alex arrived at the warehouse completely unseen by anyone or anything.

Alex looked around and knocked four times with the last knock louder than the rest. As Alex stood outside of the warehouse, waiting for Dana to answer, he heard shuffling around on the inside. Moments later, the door opened from the back and Alex walked in, immediately greeted by his sister.

"Where have you been!? I've been worried about you!" said Dana. Alex put a hand on her shoulder and walked deeper and deeper into the warehouse.

"You know where I've been. Trying to fight off the infected, saving New York City. What have you been doing?"

"Hiding, like you said." said Dana. She looked Alex over briefly. "Seeing as how you hands are empty, you forgot to get food, didn't you?" asked Dana. Alex palmed his hooded head and turned to lean on a table.

"Damn it! Sorry Dana. You know that I've been busy lately, so I guess…." said Alex who was cut off by Dana.

"Yeah. I know. Fighting the infected isn't an easy job." said Dana. Alex rubbed the back of his hooded head and headed towards a wall with a large window n the middle of it. Alex jumped up to the window, and opened it. He looked back to Dana and spoke.

"I'll come back later. Right now though, I need to go get the food I promised you. See you." said Alex. He jumped out the window, leaving Dana in the warehouse alone. As soon as he was out of the warehouse, Alex jumped as high and far as he could and glided back towards the city, where the food was being held. As soon as he made his way over buildings and streets, Alex made it to a military base in the middle of Manhattan. This military base in particular though was the toughest one in all of the city. It had the highest security staff and twenty tanks guarded it twenty four-seven. not to mention the ten helicopters that were on the top of the base and other surrounding buildings. Alex backed away on to the roof of the building and looked through the skies as well. About fifteen of hovering sensors were all over the place, watching every where for Alex. Unfortunately though, the military is transferring all the food they can get into this base and storing it for the troops.

"_Damn it! Security is tough around here."_ thought Alex. Continuing to observe from the building roof top, Alex counted in a split second about a hundred thirty guards. They were looking all around, to try and spot Alex incase he came around. _"The only way for me to get in, is to find the base commander and consume him. Damn, in a base like this, consuming will be nearly impossible without being seen."_ thought Alex. He went back to observe the base and caught sight of the commander, walking down a little ways away from the base, down a block or two. _"Perfect…"_ thought Alex. He left his post on the building top and jumped all the way across the street and ran up the wall of the next building in front of him. He did the same thing once more, continuing in pursuit of the commander, and feel to a small, dark ally.

He walked out of the ally and looked both ways to catch sight of his target. To his right, the commander was slowly coming his way, but had stopped to do a quick check-up with two Blackwatch soldiers who were patrolling the street. Once the commander had finished, he continued walking toward Alex in the ally, unaware of his presence. Alex smirked and backed away into the dark ally where he could not be seen. The commander passed right in front of the ally way and turned to look at the darkness beside him. As soon as the commander looked away, Alex's whipfist shot out of the darkness, grabbed hold of the commander and pulled him into the ally in the blink of an eye.

"Oh shi-!" said the commander who suddenly was silenced when Alex's hands turned into claws and stabbed the commander in his stomach with two of the claw fingers coming out of each shoulder, and one finger stabbed right up the neck through the skull. Alex pulled out his blood drenched claw and sliced the already dead victim roughly across his waist. Once he was cut into two pieces, tentacles came out of Alex's body and took in the remains of the dead commander in a matter of seconds. Once he had finished and the tentacles took refuge within Alex's body, all that was left in the dark ally was a pool of dark red blood. Alex turned into the commander and slowly walked out of the ally and into the street, where no one had seen him do anything. "Time to infiltrate that damn military base." said Alex, retracing the commander's steps back to the base.


	2. Chapter 2 Allen Nelson

Chapter 2

Once back to the military base and with Alex disguised as the commander, Alex went straight to the first sensor he saw that was close by. Once he was there, he began entering a sequence of commands through switches and turned off the sensor. Once it was down, Alex moved into the base area and turned off the other two switches, leaving him completely free of any chance of being detected; that is, except for the sensors flying over head, but he didn't need to worry about them. Alex was already at the door of the base and had already entered. He shut the door behind him and looked at the interior of the base, which was much different than the other bases. On the inside, were dimly lit hallways and with very few personnel patrolling them. Alex walked a little bit faster down the hallways trying to find the storage room that contained food.

After a couple hours of searching, Alex found the room he was looking for. On the inside were thousands of crates, all containing food and water. All that was left was to find a way out of the base with enough food to last them about a week or two. Alex took on his original form and began opening the crates to gain access to the food inside. As he picked up about five pieces of food, Alex heard a couple of voices and quickly resumed his commander disguise. He moved away from the crates and headed back to the door as the voices came closer. He stood outside of the door and watched as two men came down the hall talking.

"… so where is he?" asked one of the men.

"He's in the data room now and he wishes not to be disturbed. Later though, he'll appear in the Conference Room." said the other man who was acting a little frantic and fumbling with some papers. As they continued walking down the hall, they had both noticed the commander standing at the storage room door looking at them.

"Commander!" said one of the men as they came closer to Alex.

_"Shit!"_ he thought. Alex remained silent as the two men approached with a friendly greeting.

"Hey commander, what are you doing in here?" asked one of the men. Alex had to come up with an excuse quick!

"I was just checking up on a few things, making sure everything is secured nice and tight." said Alex, making a quick recovery. One of the men nodded as the other fiddled through the papers and looked at the commander.

"Um… uh… commander?" said the man with the papers. Alex turned to here what the man had to say. "I-I'm sorry to ask this of you, b-but my partner and I are in a hurry, so would you mind going off and finding this person for us?" asked the man handing Alex a piece of paper with a picture on it. This man seemed about fifty-something years of age. In the picture, he was wearing a brown coat with dark brown buttons; he had almost pale blue eyes that were covered by brown thin glasses. His hair was nicely combed but looked like parts of it were bleached in gray. He seemed like a normal guy, the question was: what was so special about him? The two men thanked him and headed down their way to continue their conversation. Alex was left alone in the hall holding a picture of a man he did not know. Alex looked at the picture again and sighed.

"_Aw man…if I don't go and look for the man, I might get caught. In that case, I guess I need to go looking for him."_ thought Alex. He walked down the hall looking for a specific door with a sign on it. _"I think I heard them say he was in the data room. That should be just down this hall…"_ he thought. Around fifteen minutes later, Alex found the door that had the sign "Data Room" on it. Alex opened the door and looked inside. It was a sort of smallish room with scattered papers all over the floor and a computer with an image on it. Alex moved closer into the room and looked at the image on the screen. The image, was a profile of Elizabeth Greene containing information about her long lost son, PARIAH; secret information.

"What are you doing here!? I thought I told you not to disturb me!" said a man's voice. Alex turned around and saw the man he was looking for. The man on the piece of paper that looked like an ordinary middle aged man. Alex turned to him and moved out of the way as the man came closer to the computer.

"What do you think you're doing with this information?" asked Alex. The man remained silent, he was going to refuse to talk. Alex knew that if anything had to do with Elizabeth Greene, he was probably involved in it too. Knowing this, Alex locked the door behind him in the man and prepared to force him to talk.

"What are you doing!?" yelled the man as he heard the door behind them shut and lock. Alex turned to the man and took his original form in front of the eyes of this man. He gasped as he saw the transformation and as Alex's hands turned into large claws.

"Y-You're Alex Mercer!" said the man. Alex nodded and moved a claw finger right below his chin.

"Who are you? And what are you doing with this information of Elizabeth Greene and her son?" asked Alex demanding answers. He was about to go in for the strike when the man spoke suddenly.

"My name is Allen Nelson! I'm trying to find PARIAH!" said the man. Alex stopped his strike and spoke a little bit quieter.

"Why?" asked Alex. The man was struggling with thinking of what kind of words to say. After thinking, he spoke.

"I am PARIAH's father and the husband of Elizabeth Greene. I am trying to find my own son." said Allen. Alex backed away a step or two from Allen and let his claw retake the form of a hand.

"W-What!?" said Alex completely shocked. Allen took a seat in a chair that was close by the computer and spoke with Alex.

"I am trying to find my son, Alex. The military had taken him away from me a long time ago, at the same time they confined Elizabeth on floor fifty one of the Genteck Building. I have no idea where they took PARIAH, but I know that I need to find him. You know how Manhattan has been getting worse right? Well, that's all due to what PARIAH is doing. He was infected with the virus, but not in the same way as Elizabeth. He has better control and has found a way to make the virus cross over water bodies. He has only made the virus worse." said Allen.

"But that still doesn't explain why you're trying to find him." said Alex. Allen nodded and continued his story.

"I have been trying to find a cure for the virus completely, but the fact remains that I can't complete the vaccine without a sample of PARAIH's altered DNA. If I can find him, talk to him, maybe I can get the sample from him that I need so that I can save him and everybody else." Allen took a moment and looked at Alex. "I need your help, Alex. I know what you can do, I've seen it. If you were to help me find my son, I could make sure that you become a part of the Blackwatch Soldiers. You'll work with the army, get out of the quarantine, and travel the world if you help me look for my son." said Allen. Alex backed away a little bit more, still ferociously shocked.

"Why should I help you?" asked Alex. Allen smirked and explained even more.

"You may think of me as some sort of mad scientist wanting to only perform harmful tests on some subject. However, the truth remains the same: I love my son, no matter what he does or becomes." Alex could care less about his feelings. Allen decided to change tactics. "PARIAH's brain still remains in tact. In a way, you and PARIAH are the same. Which means that the cure for the virus, could even cure your symptoms as well." said Allen. Alex's heart began to speed up. He was considering the offer. If he joined the military, he would get out of the quarantine and travel the world; two things he really wanted to do. He would even have a high chance of getting cured if he met up with PARIAH.

"If I joined, would Dana be safe too? She's my sister." said Alex. Allen nodded, stood up and walked closer to Alex.

"I promise you, I will protect everything that you can't, Alex. Dana will be under constant military protection from the infected. She will be treated like an honored guest, I assure you." He said awaiting Alex's answer. He put a hand on Alex's shoulder.

"I really need your help Alex. You're the only one that can help me if I even stand the slightest chance of finding my son." said Allen. Alex remained silent a little while longer.

"If I join, what about the other troops? Won't they all be suspicious of having me walk among them as Alex Mercer the Blacklight virus?" asked Alex. Allen nodded.

"Yes, they will be suspicious. It will with out a doubt be difficult for you to try and fit in with them. If you and I can make a promise though, I will make sure they all treat you the same as any other soldier." said Allen. Alex thought just a moment later and gave his decision.

"Okay…. but if anyone tries to turn on me or shoot me, I'll kill everyone and go back to fighting the infected." said Alex. Allen smiled and shook Alex's hand.

"Thank you! Thank you! You won't regret this, I promise!" said Allen.

"How is this going to work exactly? I can't just go waltzing up to any military base and expect them to treat me like I'm a friend." said Alex. Allen nodded.

"True, but I have a certain power over the people in this base. I am respected fully by many people. I will arrange a meeting among the other troops and the authorities tomorrow. In the mean time, go home and relax. Tomorrow morning at nine, a small squad of Blackwatch soldiers, along with myself; will be sent to Time Square to rendezvous with you. They will ask your name and ask you to get in the truck. I will take you back to this base, where I shall present you as the main event in the meeting. What do you think?" asked Allen. Alex nodded.

"Sounds good. I'll head out of here as soon as I can." said Alex. Allen nodded and let Alex leave from the door. This was going to be a nice change of pace for Alex, but the thought kept echoing in his mind: _"Did I do the right thing? Is this a good idea?"_ Even if it wasn't, Alex's only chance was to trust this man if he knew how to cure the virus. It was the only way...


	3. Chapter 3 The Conference

Chapter 3

The Conference

Alex stood silently outside the door of his and Dana's hideout. He clenched his fist trying to think of how he should tell Dana about what happened. She most likely wouldn't be happy with him at all, but he was going to give it a shot anyway. He did the secret knock on the door and Dana opened shortly after to let Alex slip inside.

"Alex, where's the food?" asked Dana. Alex held up a plastic bag in his hands and showed it to Dana. The bag was filled to the brim with all kinds of canned and packaged foods and drinks that Alex had stolen from the base. "This is amazing Alex!" said Dana. She took the bag from him and went over to a couch to pour some of the stuff out to sort it. Alex came up behind her and spoke quietly.

"Dana, there's something I need to tell you." said Alex. He was preparing himself for the argument that would shortly ensue.

"What is it?" she asked. Alex began to tell her about the deal he made. "I went into the base and got the food, but I.... I came across someone named Allen Nelson." said Alex. Dana sat down to listen to his story. "Allen Nelson is the man who had a romance with Elizabeth Greene and is the father of Pariah. I met with him and he told me that he is looking for his son and knew that it was impossible to find him by himself. He knew who I was and said I was the only one that could help him find Pariah. He said that if I did, I would be able to join the Blackwatch soldiers." said Alex. He took a second to wait for Dana to vent her thoughts.

"What? Alex you can't! Even if he can get you into the army and lead to where Pariah is, he will just betray you! The second he senses that he no longer needs you, he'll turn the soldiers on you and... and..." Dana no longer continued and allowed Alex to finish.

"He said that Pariah is the key to finding the real cure to the virus. The real cure to me... If I go with him and he finds Pariah and makes a cure. I could get my life back... my regular life." said Alex. Dana remained silent and got up to move closer to Alex. "Dana... I know it isn't a good idea, but if I do this, you'll be protected 24-7 when I can't be there for you. I can't fight the infected forever; I wouldn't be able to get the job done at all. This may be my only chance..." said Alex.

"It's not a good idea, but at least you know that at all. Do what you want. If I'm protected fine, but I'm still not going to trust any one of them." said Dana crossing her arms. Alex chuckled.

"Just what I would expect from my sister. I'm glad to hear that." said Alex. He told her about what was going down tomorrow mourning and that the blackwatch soldiers were going to be waiting for him and Dana at Time Square. They would take them to the military base and help ensure their safety. Tomorrow... tomorrow...

Alex and Dana exited out of their warehouse and with Dana riding piggyback on Alex, Alex ran and jumped as fast and as high as he could over buildings, through the streets, and up the walls. It only took about ten minutes for Alex to make it to Time Square with Dana. When they arrived, Alex looked over the side of a building in time square and spotted the truck with about five blackwatch soldiers guarding the truck and shooting the infected walkers as they drew closer. "Perfect... just as Allen said." thought Alex. He hooked an arm around Dana's waist and jumped down the building to the street hurrying over to the truck. The blackwatch soldiers saw Alex and Dana heading towards them and opened the car door for them to enter inside.

"Alex and Dana Mercer, please enter the vehicle." said one of the soldiers. Alex took Dana and put her inside the truck and looked back at the soldiers. They really were trying to fight off the infected. Alex looked at Dana who was screaming and turned to go back to the soldiers. Alex came in front of them and activated his claw power. Alex spoke back to the soldiers as he looked at all the walkers closing in.

"Alex Mercer, please return to the vehicle." said a soldier Alex looked back at them and sent a scowling glare toward them.

"Get out of here and keep Dana safe! I'll take care of these guys and buy you some time to get away. Please! Get in the truck!" said Alex. The firing of the soldiers ceased and they entered starting the car and leaving Alex to fight off the wave. With his claws, Alex jumped up high and into the crowd of the infected. Upon landing, Alex's claws sliced through ten infected at once, killing them in an instant. Alex continued running through the crowd and decapitating their numbers, slicing through all of them like they were nothing. Alex changed weapons and brought out his whipfist and as he swung it around his head, he sliced through every infected that came within a thirty foot radius of him. After destroying such a large number of them, Alex brought back his normal hand and took off from the building and followed the truck as best he could. When Dana and the Blackwatch soldiers arrived at the base, they unloaded themselves from the truck and headed into the base as quickly as possible. One of the soldiers waited outside for Alex to show up. It only took a minute later for them to spot Alex jumping over a sky scraper and landing in front of them. He still had a sort of sour look on his face.

"Where is Dana? Is she safe?" asked Alex asking the soldier. He nodded and pointed to the door leading in.

"Yeah, she's inside waiting for you." said the soldier Alex nodded and walked passed him toward the door. "Alex..." said a soldier. Alex turned to him. "Th-thank you for the cover... We were in real trouble back there." said the soldier Alex nodded, gave a short smile and left inside to see his sister. The minute he walked in, Dana rushed to him and gave him a large hug.

"I'm so glad you're alright! I was so worried when we had to leave you behind like that!" she said . Alex shrugged.

"No big deal." he said. He looked past Dana and saw Allen Nelson smiling at him. He was holding a brief case as he moved closer to Alex.

"Good to see you and your sister made it here in one peace, Alex." said Allen. He reached out a hand and shook with Alex warmly. "Let's get started. With your permission, I will send Dana to safe room in this building, she will have a constant military guard present and will be kept under surveillance twenty four seven. Are you alright with that?" asked Allen. Alex nodded. "Good." Alex looked at Dana as she looked at Alex with fear in her eyes. Alex looked back at her with strong eyes, telling her that everything will be fine. Dana nodded and kindly went with the soldier that was to be her escort. Allen began walking down a hallway with Alex following him.

"So Alex, first thing is first. We are heading to the conference room to discuss the matter of you joining. I ask that no matter what they may say about you, you remain quiet and only speak when you are permitted. Think you can do that one little favor for me?" asked Allen. Alex nodded. The soldiers were walking behind him with guns in hand but were in no way pointing them at him. They were just escorts. Alex continued to follow Allen a little ways further before they reached a door at the end of a hallway. "Alright Alex. When I call for you enter through this door. When you enter take a seat next to the podium where I will be standing. Do not be alarmed if there happens to be a panic in the crowd." said Allen Alex nodded and stood outside of the door as Allen walked in. Allen walked up the stairs and made it to the podium of the conference room where everyone was gathered for the presentation. "Good morning Everyone! I bet that you are all wondering why you are here. Allow me to get right to the point; the infected are becoming worse and worse everyday and the virus itself has even found a way to cross over large bodies of water. The virus continues to spread and we are starting to run low on defenses. I am currently trying to find the main source of the virus' origin point, sadly though, I have no luck." said Allen. The crowd continued to remain silent. "That is why I have before us, someone who can really make a difference in purging the virus..." Allen looked to the door and nodded at a soldier who was standing near by to open it up for Alex to enter. Once the door was open, Alex slowly walked up to the chair that was by the podium and sat down. Upon his arrival, the conference room erupted in angry screams and protests about Alex's presence. Alex remained silent and endured the hateful crowd as Allen Nelson tried to calm them down. "Everyone, Please!" said Allen over the crowd. It quieted down a little bit, with most people still protesting.

"What in you're right mind thinks that it is okay to let Alex Mercer, a.k.a. the Blacklight virus into this base!? He's a monster and will kill us all!" screamed a man in the audience. Alex remained silent as the harsh words reached his ears.

"I know how you all feel about Alex Mercer being here among us. I assure you though, we are out of options, and Alex is the only one that can really help us with defeating the virus. You all know that the virus has spread to certain parts of the world, and we are going to need as much help as possible. Alex mercer is our ace in the hole. With him, I can guarantee that we will all prevail over this." said Allen. A man somewhere in the front row crossed his arms and looked at Allen with a quizzical look. This man was a little older than Allen, he had white hair and a scar on his right cheek.

"Really? Allen, you do realize that, out of all the infected we've faced, Alex Mercer is the one that has killed most of our men and destroyed most of our bases. What makes you think that we should trust him with joining Blackwatch?" asked the man. Allen thought about what to say.

"I am well aware that he has killed most of our men, and they were all good men. However, I'm not asking you to forgive him or even trust him. All I'm asking is that you cooperate with him, for with out him, we are completely lost in this battle. I'm sure, General Morgan, that you know this already." said Allen. The old man nodded and stood up from his chair.

"Indeed I do. I will not trust him, but I give you my full support in letting him walk among us." said General Morgan. Allen nodded and asked Alex to stand up and say a word or two. Alex spoke into the podium.

"I hate the infected as much as you all do. I will give my all to help in their defeat." said Alex. They all still booed him, but the decision was final: Alex mercer was now a part of the Blackwatch soldiers. Alex almost felt like smiling...

After the room was cleared out and Allen and Alex were walking down a hallway, Alex still had more questions.

"Tell me, since I'm a part of Blackwatch, how are you going to get me a place in the traveling squad? They will probably try to keep me in the city." said Alex. Allen nodded.

"True, but I'll make sure that you get put into squad A-190R, the best traveling squad in the government. They travel the farthest and the longest, which means far away places all around the world. You have nothing to worry about Alex, I'll take care of everything." said Allen.

"I also have another question, who was the old man in the front row, General Morgan?" asked Alex. Allen explained.

"He brought me into the military many years ago and is a dear friend of mine. We each trust each other and understand one another's judgement. He is one of the reasons I was able to make him agree to letting you join us." said Allen. "He is also the main man in charge of Blackwatch altogether. Whatever you do though, please don't ask him any questions unless you need to; he just hates that when people do it." said Allen chuckling a bit at the last part. Alex remained silent and continued to listen to Allen talk about his old friend General Morgan. A couple minutes later, Alex and Allen arrived at a door in a hallway. On the inside was a large suite with Dana already sitting on the couch in the middle of the room, watching TV. Alex was surprised at the quality of his quarters when he arrived. Allen spoke some more. "This is you and your sister's room. You will each get separate sleeping rooms and bathrooms, but everything else you have to share." he said. Dana looked to the door and saw Alex standing there with Allen. She smiled slightly and went to go meet with them.

"How did it go?" she asked. Allen smiled.

"He's in. I'll make the final adjustments to his position, but you are now both a part of the government." said Allen. Dana smiled and looked at Alex who remained silent as he looked at the room. Allen looked at Alex and then at Dana. "Dana, would you mind giving me a minute or two with Alex? One last important thing that we need to talk about." said Allen. Dana nodded and went back inside the room, leaving Alex and Allen alone.

"What is it?" asked Alex. Allen's smile faded.

"It will be rough on you Alex, but try to remember that we're doing this for the world and for you and my son. Tomorrow morning, I want you to come to room 978-BI. I'll be waiting there with a surprise for you. Okay?" said Allen. Alex wanted to ask what he meant, but Allen left quickly without another word. Alex went inside the sweet, and went directly to his bed. He was tired, and he needed to rest. So much had happened today, it wore him out.

"I'm a Blackwatch soldier now... I have to be strong for Dana and for myself..." was all Alex thought about before he entered his world of dreams.


	4. Chapter 4 New Powers, New Technology

Chapter 4

The New Powers and New Technology

Alex woke up in his room and looked to the desk that was to the left of his bed. On the desk was a note and a change of clothes... military uniform. Alex got out of bed and read the note that was on top of the nicely folded clothes. "Alex Mercer, please get dressed as soon as you can when you awake. Head to room 978-BI to meet with Allen Nelson, arrive no later than 0900 hours." was all the note said. A second reminder for Alex on what he agreed to do for Allen. He did as he was told and slipped into his Uniform. After that, he crept out of his room quietly trying not to wake Dana, made his way to the door of their suite, and into the hallway. Once the door was shut behind him, Alex looked at a clock on the wall of the hallway. It was about two minutes until 0900 and the room Allen wanted to see him in was almost on the other side of the facility. Alex headed down the hallway and sprinted as fast as he could to the room. He made it to the room only a minute and thirty seconds later. He opened the door and walked in to see Allen sitting at a white desk working at a computer and sipping coffee. The room on the inside was very large and very white. There were all kinds of interesting tools and machines in the room, all of which were being tended to by other scientists. Allen looked behind him and saw Alex standing at the door way of the room.

"Ah Alex! Since you're here on time, I presume that you got the message. Very good." said Allen. Alex walked over to Allen and sat in a chair at the desk with Allen.

"Allen. Why did you want me to come here this morning?" asked Alex. Allen sipped from his coffee again and spoke.

"Recently, we've come across a very interesting discovery about your abilities Alex." said Allen. Alex seemed confused as Allen stood up and began walking away. Alex followed him toward one of the machines.

"What do you mean by that? What kind of discovery? A cure after all!?" asked Alex. Allen shook his head.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Alex, no cure." said Allen. Alex's face saddened. Allen and Alex walked into a room where a scientist was looking through a microscope. Upon them entering the scientist looked up from his work and greeted them with a smile.

"Dr. Nelson, hello." he said. He was a man in his early forties with a proud mustache and glasses hanging at the tip of his nose. Allen shook hands with the man and introduce Alex.

"Good morning. Alex, I would like you to meet another good friend of mine, Michael Thompson. He works with me in biological weaponry and bio-mechanics." said Allen Alex looked to Allen seeming surprised.

"You're a biologist as well? I had no idea." said Alex. Alex reached out a hand to shake with Michael, but he backed away a little bit. Allen looked at Michael and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I promise you, he won't do anything to hurt you." said Allen with a reassuring smile. Michael nodded and finally shook hands with Alex. Michael brought them over to a couple of chairs placed in front of a projector and a screen. It was on this screen that allen began to explain. "We took a look at your cells and blood samples and did some testing on them. These tests revealed that a substance we created especially for you called "Mesiton" (mes-eye-tone) has given your cells new powers and abilities. After having an affect on the cell as a whole, we went even deeper into the cell and took a look at the DNA structure that we had modified with Mesiton. The DNA strands had completely been altered and gave us a layout of what makes your DNA so complicated." said Allen. On the screen, it showed a video of what had happened when they were experimenting with the cells. Alex looked to Allen who was smiling at the amazing work he had done. "Alex, I think you already know. If we give your entire body a large dose of Mesitone, your body will adapt new abilities and powers." he finished. Alex was astounded.

"Any idea what kind of powers?" asked Alex. Allen nodded.

"We haven't found out everything, but we know that you'll be able to fuse powers together when you use them, like your whip and your claws. Brand new abilities include running even faster, jumping higher and becoming stronger than ever before. Your skin will be at least ten times harder than diamonds, probably even harder than that. Also, being able to teleport and fly. Those are just a few things that you will be able to do with this new substance. I called you in here to day, to see if you would like to give yourself new powers through Mesiton. What do you say, Alex?" asked Allen. Alex hesitated.

"You're sure that I'll have new powers?" asked Alex. Allen nodded.

"I promise!" said Allen. Alex nodded and followed Allen as he began leaving the room and his friend. They walked out and down a few doors until they reached a bigger room than the one they were just in. Allen patted a seat that was in the middle of the room with a bunch of needles pointed around the chair. Allen went over to a computer by the chair and removed the needles so that Alex could sit down. In the needles, appeared to be a red, blue, black and purplish mixture in the needles. "The substance you see in the needles is Mesiton. If you can have a seat in the chair right there..." said Allen as he was working on the computer. Alex nodded and sat down in the cold chair. Allen came back around Alex and adjusted the chair a little bit. "Alex, please remove your shirt. It will make the procedure much easier." said Allen. Alex did has he was told and removed his shirt. As soon as he did, Allen said one last thing.

"Prepare yourself Alex. The pain you will experience is absolutely excruciating, but keep in mind that the power you will gain will be so much more." said Allen. Alex took in a deep breath and nodded. Allen said no more as the procedure began. After hitting a few keys on the computer, Alex's arms, chest, shoulders, legs, waist, and neck were all bound tightly to the chair by metal restraints. Hopefully the restraints would be enough to hold Alex back. After a few more keys were hit, the procedure began. The needles began to spin faster and faster as they got closer to Alex's skin. The needles went straight into Alex's arms, legs, neck, and chest. As the needles spun when they were in Alex's flesh, the Mesitone began to seep deeper into his body until it was completely bounded to his blood and body. During the process, Alex screamed as loud as he could in pain. The feeling of the needles in his body was painful enough, but the fact that they were spinning rapidly and injecting a hot liquid into his body, the pain was very great. As the procedure continued, Alex couldn't understand how he was surviving any of this. Even if this was to make him stronger, Alex should have died from such a task. The event only lasted about twenty minutes for all the Mesiton to enter Alex's body. Once he was unbound and finished, Alex looked at the holes in his arms and legs as they nearly healed automatically. He looked at Allen who was still working on the computer. Alex wanted to get up, but Allen held a hand towards him.

"Hold on for just a second. I need to make sure everything went like it should have. If there was even one flaw, side effects could ensue." said Allen. Alex waited only a moment longer and Allen gave him permission to stand up. He felt a little woozy from the pain, but Allen said it would wear off shortly.

"So how did it go?" asked Alex. Allen smiled greatly and nodded.

"Everything went even better than I expected! The Mesiton in your blood now meshes perfectly with your chemical and genetic make-up! It's astounding! Truly amazing!" said Allen. He looked away from his computer and shook Alex's hand immediately. "How do you feel? Any different?" asked Allen. Alex nodded.

"I can't describe it, but something definitely feels different." said Alex. Allen smiled so big, he looked like a little kid going to his first theme park.

"In that case, let's go do some tests on you're new powers. Follow me." said Allen. Alex nodded and followed Allen quickly. At the very back of the facility they were in, there were two doors. Allen stood at one door and Alex stood at another. "In this door, you'll find a military training area. I want to run you through all the tests I have planned for you and to do the best you can. As you do this, I shall record any data I see and make sure to document it for later use, if that is okay with you." said Allen. Alex nodded and headed through a door while Allen went through his other door. Inside the training area was a large running track with a bunch of other facilities in the middle of the large oval circle. There was a rock climbing wall, a shooting gallery, a lot of the things they had looked like a carnival to the tenth power. "Alex? Can you hear me?" asked Allen's voice. Alex reported back.

"Yes." he said.

"Oh good! Alright Alex, let's get down to business. I want you to run a mile as fast as you can. Start when ever you are ready." said Allen's voice over the intercom. Alex nodded and began sprinting down the track. He completed the mile in a mere 9.96 seconds, when running a mile before took about thirty seconds. After he finished, he didn't even feel tired at all. "Amazing Alex! Only about ten seconds to run an entire mile! Truly amazing!" said Allen. Alex smiled a little bit and prepared himself for the next task. "Ready for the next test Alex?" he asked. Alex nodded. "Move over to the rock wall. We're testing how high you can jump and how big of an impact you can make next." Alex did as he was told. The rock wall was about two hundred fifty feet and Alex could only jump about a hundred feet before. Alex charged his jump as much as he could and released. He was hurled up into the air up and over the rock wall. As he was coming down, Alex readied his foot and slammed it down on the ground the minute he made contact. The result was a twenty foot radius impression in the ground from such a powerful aerial kick. Allen's voice came over the intercom once again. "Amazing Alex!" he said. Alex looked up at the rock wall and at the impression in the ground he made.

"Did I... really just do that?" asked Alex. Allen spoke again.

"Okay. Next, we are going to test how much you can lift at max using all the strength you can muster. Ready?" asked Allen. Alex nodded. Before, the heaviest thing he could lift with out his muscle mass power was a couple of OH-58Ds (a type of helicopter), which each equaled out to about 45,000 Ibs. Now, Alex was going to try and lift four times that much without his muscle mass. The floor beneath Alex opened up revealing about nine and half tons of metal slabs. Allens voice was projected again.

"Try and lift all of these and hold it for at least twenty seconds. You'll really have to apply yourself to do it though." said Allen. Alex nodded and took on the challenge. He went over to the slabs, stuck his fingers underneath them and lifted them over his head. Once they were over his head, he held them. After twenty seconds, Alex threw the slabs about ten feet away from where he was standing. Allen's voice came in again.

"Very good!" said Allen. "Perfectly executed. From previous data I have gathered, it seems that when you use your strength increasing power, you are able to lift at least two times as much as your normal strength. We have modified that power to be able to life three times as much as what you regularly lift." said Allen. Alex looked at his hands and smiled. This power he had was much greater than he thought. Allen's voice came on the inner com again.

"Alex, it's time to try shape shifting. All you need to do is shift from each different power to check and see if everything is working correctly." said Allen. Alex did was he was told. His arms changed into claws, a whip, muscle mass, hammer arms, a blade, a shield and armor. All his transforming powers were working fine. "Good Alex. Now try out your three vision senses." said Allen. Alex looked through his thermal vision, then his infected vision. Wait, did Allen say three vision senses? Alex tried a third and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, he saw everything in black and white. Alex looked at his hands and saw that they were shining purple at the same time, and so was the rest of his body.

"Allen, what is this third vision?" asked Alex. Allen smiled and his voice came back over the intercom.

"The third vision you have access to is called mesiton vision. This allows you to see mesiton in an object or an organism." said Allen. Alex looked around and saw nothing but black and white. No traces of mesiton in the room anywhere. "The reason for this Alex is because your body is now completely adapted to the mesiton and should be bonded completely with your infection. Like I said, this mesiton will give you new powers. One of these is teleporting." said Allen. Another section of the ground opened up beneath Alex as he watched a blue object come out of the ground. "If you are still using your third vision, you should be able to see that object is glowing blue. That object has traces of mesiton in it. With mesiton, you'll be able to go from place to place instantly just by thinking of where you want to go with the mesiton as a reference point." said Allen. Alex spoke.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand." said Alex. Allen's voice came in again.

"Here is an example: you have mesiton in your body and you see an object that also has mesiton in it. Teleporting only works when you have your mesiton vision activated. You can teleport to any object that has mesiton in it, but not to any place where there isn't mesiton. If there is somewhere else you want to go, you'll have to travel by foot." said Allen. "Now for starters, just try to teleport to the object using mesiton. All you really have to do is think of where you want to go and how you want to appear. Above, below, behind, in front, left, or right of an object. Give it a try." said Allen. Alex looked at the object with his third vision and thought about how he wanted to teleport. In an instant, Alex felt himself in one place and in another suddenly shift. Alex looked behind him and saw the object on the ground. Alex looked at it, but saw that the object was no longer blue. It was black.

"The reason the object is black now is because when you teleport, you have to use up an extra source of mesiton in order for it to work. Using up that mesiton causes the object to turn black and, should it be a living organism, die. Once Mesiton is no longer in an object, teleporting to that point is no longer an option." said Allen. Alex looked behind him again and saw that there were two of the same object, both containing mesiton.

"Now that the basics of teleporting are down Alex, let's teach you how to flicker between objects. These are two teleporting mesiton objects. Teleport to one object, then to the other object, and then back to the other object." said Allen. Alex nodded and teleported almost instantly to one object, then automatically to the other object. Alex looked at the object he was at and saw that it was close to black, but was more of a dark purple. "See the object now? It's a dark purple. In certain objects, mesiton will still be available after teleporting once therefore, allowing you to teleport to that same spot again. Some objects have higher levels of the mesiton than others. When you come across one that has some extra mesiton, you will see that it's color will be darker than blue, but not completely black." said Allen. Alex nodded and deactivated his mesiton vision.

"Next, we shall work on flying." said Allen. "Try and make wings expand out of your shoulder blades." he said. Alex closed his eyes and felt a pain over come his back shoulders. Points came out of his back and suddenly, wings poked out of the clothes Alex was wearing. They were big brownish red wings with each about two times bigger than Alex. "In order to fly, you will need to get a running start and catch the air in your wings. You'll know when you can fly by jumping high in the air." said Allen. "But you'll have to try it out later. There is only one other thing left for us to test." said Allen. Alex made the wings recede back into his body as Alex listened to what Allen was going to say.

"Lastly, we are aware that you consume any kind of organism, no matter how big or how small. Since we don't want you feeding off our troops, we've developed a secondary source of being able to consume with out killing any kind of organism." said Allen. The floor began to separate beneath Alex as a machine came out that looked like some sort of capsule. "This machine will provide your body with the energy it needs to regenerate. Go ahead and do that now." said Allen. Alex nodded and went over to the capsule and entered inside. The capsule was air tight so that Alex was the only one getting the nutrients he needed. Inside the capsule, a red mist filled the inside. Alex breathed it in deeply and smiled. It smelled like blood, tasted like blood, but Alex knew that it wasn't blood they made into mist. Once the procedure was finished, Alex came out smiling.

"So, Alex... what do you think of your brand new abilities so far?" asked Allen. Alex continued to smile.

"Very good... Allen." said Alex. He exited out of the training area and met up with Allen outside the door.

"We got some great data Alex. Really great stuff." said Allen with a smile. Alex nodded with a slight smile.

"You said that there was even more that I could do. Why aren't we still testing?" asked Alex. Allen explained.

"As we were testing, I got a call from my friend General Morgan. He said that the first assignment you have with squad A-190R against the infected starts in five hours. He said to take the time to prepare for the travel. You're going to Sacramento, California." said Allen with a smile. Alex smiled too. In a few hours he would get to meet his squad and really give the infected something to worry about.

"Perfect... sounds absolutely perfect." said Alex smiling.


	5. Chapter 5 Sacramento, California

Chapter 5

Sacramento, California

While Alex and Allen walked down to the hallway leading to the helicopter hanger, Allen explained the situation.

"The Infection has, unfortunately, spread to most of United States already. Right now though, the infected population has grown about 23.8% bigger in just a couple of days. With such a rapid increase and high population of infected monsters, we have decided to send team A-190R; your team, Alex." said Allen. Alex nodded.

"So is Sacramento where PARIAH is?" asked Alex. Allen shook his head.

"I highly doubt it." said Allen. "I know our deal was to find PARIAH, but I have been tracking a specific type of infected that might have information about PARIAH's location. I need you to head over to Sacramento, consume the infected, and return back here with any information you might have regarding PARIAH." said Allen. Alex nodded.

As Alex and Allen made it to the end of the hallway and entered into the helicopter hanger, a group of about nineteen soldiers was waiting by a very large helicopter; a CH-53E Super Stallion by the looks of it. When Alex and Allen had arrived, a tall man with a scar on his left cheek came forward to Allen and Alex.

"Good morning, Dr. Nelson." he said in a deep voice putting a hand out for Allen and him to shake.

"Good morning to you too." he said. After shaking, he put a hand on Alex's shoulder and brought him closer to the team. "Everyone, I'd like for you to meet Alex Mercer; a brand new recruit for your team." said Allen. Alex remained silent as Allen introduced him. "I'll leave him in your trust and care, Captain Daze. Make sure to give him a quick briefing through the equipment and the weaponry." said Allen with a bright cheery smile. The captain nodded and looked at Alex with eyes of neutral emotion.

"I won't let you down, I'll take good care of him." said the Captain. Alex nodded and turned to Allen.

"Thank you Allen." he said. Allen nodded and left the hanger to attend to other duties. Once he was gone, the Captain came up to Alex and looked at him with disgust, as did all the soldiers behind him.

"So, for what bull-shit reason did Dr. Allen Nelson make you, of all people, join us?" asked the Captain. Alex felt nothing and said nothing as they continued to circle him. "I'm sure you already know this, but no one... not one person except for Dr. Nelson, likes you at all. Hell, we all hate you and we all agree that you don't deserve to be called a Blackwatch Soldier". said the Captain. Alex only remained silent.

"Even though we all hate your guts, we will protect you as you will help protect us. We will not help you out of kindness or personal bonds, but out of the honor we have for ourselves and our possitions." said the Captain. Alex nodded and looked at the other troops. Captain Haze looked in his direction and introduced four other soldiers.

"These four are Private Black, Private 2 Alveraz, Specialist Jones, and Private First Class Sanderson. You are to follow all direct orders given to you by each of us. Understood?" asked the Captain.

"Yes sir." said Alex. The Captain nodded and brought Alex over to a table with equipment laid down on top.

"On this table you see the standard equipment that every soldier in Blackwatch is required to have. A standard military edition M4A1 assault rifle, an M9 hand gun, and about five or six frag grenades." said the Captain. He moved over to the left side of the table and gave Alex a Blackwatch uniform, but it was black and red instead of standard military camo. "Allen Nelson picked this one out for you himself. He thought that it would be a good idea to make sure you could be recognized by others in the military as the Blacklight virus." he said. Alex looked at the clothes nodded, and headed over to a nearby changing room to exchange clothes and emerge wearing a Blackwatch uniform.

"Good, you're ready." said the Captain as he turned to his team. "Alright everyone, it's time we get going! Grab your gear and move your ass on the heli as fast as you can. We leave in two minutes!" he said loudly. Everyone broke from the team grabbing the gear and equipment they needed and hurried themselves on to the helicopter. Alex was dead last to get on because each of the soldiers gave him looks or pushed him out of the way. He sat down between Private Jones and an unnamed soldier on the opposite side of Alex. The helicopter took off as quickly as it could and Alex sat in silence as he listened to the speaking of the soldiers around him cracking wise-ass jokes and smoking cigarettes and cigars.

"Hey." said a soldier sort of whispering to Alex. Alex looked at him and saw his eyes were filled with anger and hate. "I'm Private Stuart." he said. Alex looked at him and turned away, thinking nothing about his name. "I don't know what Dr. Nelson is thinking, and I don't really care. All I know is that I hate you, and if I ever get the chance, I would love to shoot your damn head off and turn it in to General Morgan." he said sounding almost evil and filled with hate. Alex turned to him and shook his head.

"You can think like that all you want. Shooting me wouldn't make much of a difference. You should try and remember what I would be doing right now if I wasn't on your side; you would all be dead." said Alex. Private Stuart stood up quickly and threw a punch at Alex's face, but Alex leaned backward to dodge it which led to the punch being thrown the wrong way and hitting another soldier. After the fist struck his comrade, Stuart shouted at Alex and came at him with both hands ready to strangle his neck. Before this could happen though, the ruckus had brought forth Captain Daze as he looked at them seeming infuriated.

"What is going on here!" he yelled. Alex looked at the Captain and then back at Stuart. Captain Daze followed Alex's gaze and looked at Stuart who seemed convulsed.

"Private Stuart, what the hell happened back here?" asked the Captain. He immediately pointed a finger at Alex and yelled.

"He said that if he ever got the chance he was going to kill all of us! I heard him myself!" he said as he continued pointing. Alex stood quickly and began to protest.

"You can't seriously believe anything this son of a bitch says can you! I just got here, why in the world would I suddenly say something like that!" he yelled. Captain Daze had had enough.

"Both of you sit down, shut the hell up and remain that way until we make it to Sacramento. We'll deal with this afterwards." said the Captain. Both Alex and Stuart sat down and followed the captain's orders. The ride was quieter for the entire trip, a full five hours all the way to Sacramento, California. Once the trip was over, squad A-190R was dispatched from the helicopter and left outside to make it to the military base set up in the city. The site of Sacramento was in even worse shape than Manhattan. Buildings everywhere had fallen down and reduced to nothing but ashes. In the far ff distance you could hear the screams of the city, all the yelling and howling in pain could be heard. Alex took a deep breath through his nose and soaked up the smell. Blood, smoke, fire, and lots of gun powder. The smell was beginning to exhilarate Alex as he could feel the chaos that this city had been reduced to.

"Alex, let's go!" said the Captain running in a direction. Alex turned around and began running (not sprinting) after the group of soldiers. "Alex, just getting to the military base here in Sacramento is going to be a challenge; we'll be relying a lot on you to help get us there. Think you can get your hands dirty if we need you too?" asked the Captain. Alex nodded.

"Of course, I was hoping you would say something like that." said Alex with a smirk. After the conversation, Alex and the Captain heard as gunfire suddenly started. Alex brought his gun out and began jumped up and high over all the soldiers to see what was fired at. In the front of the line of soldiers an walker came running towards them as it was shot dead immediately. Alex came back down from his jump and landed on a hill a few feet away from the captain.

"It was nothing, just a single walker. But knowing the infected like I do, there will be many more of them shortly." said Alex. The Captain nodded and whistled loud. He caught the attention of most of the troops.

"Listen up! Alex Mercer knows more about the infected than we could ever hope to know. If he says that there are a bunch of walkers coming, we would best believe him! Get ready to open fire!" said the Captain. They all obeyed his direct orders and got their guns out and ready to fire. The captain looked to Alex. "Alex, I need you to make it to the front of the line, you should know where to go right? Lead everyone to the military base about ten blocks from here." said the Captain. Alex nodded and jumped high as he made his way to the front of the line and brought out his gun to shoot any walker that might come out. Sure enough, just as Alex had finished preparing himself, the walkers came out from a building and began charging like mindless monsters toward the group of twenty Blackwatch soldiers.

"Open fire now!" yelled Alex as he began firing his gun immediately and taking out about some seven walkers in just a few shots. The team behind him began shooting as well, taking out walkers the best they could. The captain made his way up to the front and began shooting walkers that were coming up from behind Alex and came to shoot with him.

"Nicely done, Alex. We got the jump on them before they did on us." said the Captain. Alex smiled at the Captain as he continued to fire away at the walkers. "I just got a direct military massage from a helicopter. They said that they were going to drop a package off for you in this area. It'll be about five minutes. Think we can handle them?" asked the Captain. A walker was just coming up from the behind the captain to try and kill him. But Alex threw away his gun and reached out an arm to grab the walker by the neck and gained some distance between him and the captain.

"Not like this, not by using guns." said Alex. "It's okay if I consume infected right?" asked Alex. The Captain nodded as Alex squeezed his hand around the walker's neck until his head popped off spewing blood all over. Alex's tentacles came out from around his body and took the pieces of the walker into himself. He felt refreshed and turned to the walkers as they continued coming from a building. Alex summoned the power that was him and brought out his claws. They seemed spikier and sharper than ever before and Alex moved as quickly as he could to kill the monsters that approached him. he ran through a large group of them slicing and dicing through all their bodies with even more ease than Alex had ever done before. This new feeling of invincibility and tremendous strength must have been due to the new Mesitone that was going through his body. After one run through of the crowd of infected walkers, he had killed over a couple hundred of them in on try. That was way more than he ever could have done before. All the Blackwatch soldiers were still firing away and so far, none of them had an injury and all the walkers were being decimated easily. It was all thanks to Alex's outstanding efforts. The soldiers began regrouping with the Captain as Alex jumped over and landed in front of them. His arms returned from claws to hands and he picked up his gun that was at the Captain's feet.

"Very nicely done Alex." said the Captain. Alex nodded. "The machine should be here..." said the Captain as a wind began to pick up around them. They all looked up in the sky and saw five helicopters each attached to a big metal machine through the use of metal cables. These five helicopters slowly descended and set the package down safely before the troops. The helicopters detached from the metal cables and zoomed toward the military base that Alex's group was headed towards. Alex approached the machine as it opened up for him to step inside. Once inside, the door closed behind him and change air pressure to make sure that it was air tight. Once it was, the red mist began to expel from a vent above Alex's head. He breathed it in feeling refreshed and ready for more. After he finished, he left outside the machine and walked over to the Captain.

"Okay, let's go." said the Captain. Alex nodded and followed behind him and a few other soldiers. The Captain was taking the lead this time to ensure that he was the first to fire at infected. They approached deeper into the city fighting and killing any infected that came there way. When they made it about halfway through, Alex heard a roar echo through the nearly quiet and empty streets. The sound came from the top of the flaming buildings, and sounded like a hunter. Alex's face turned from expressionless to alarmed immediately. He ran to the front with the Captain and spoke loudly.

"Everyone, take cover immediately! Hunters are coming!" he yelled. Alex brought out his blade and scanned the area for the hunters. All the soldiers did as they were told, except the Captain, and took cover in a nearby restaurant that wasn't even lit of fire or anything. It was just smashed and trashed. As the Captain took a stand by Alex, he spoke. "Captain Daze! Go hide! When it comes to hunters, there is no way you will be able to help!" said Alex as another roar sounded.

"Maybe, but you're one of my men, and I won't let you fight alone." said Captain Daze. Alex was about to reply when about five hunters came jumped down from the buildings and growled at Alex and the Captain.

"Fine, do what you want!" said Alex. He charged the middle hunter and prepared his blade's position to attack the hunter and slice through it in one hit. He jumped up and moved his blade to slam it down on a hunter that was jumping up towards him to try and grab him. Alex swung forward and down, making a complete flip and striking through the hunter in one blow. The two bloody halves fell to the ground as Alex jumped toward the captain who was running and shooting at a pursuing hunter. At the end of his jump, Alex landed in between the Captain and the hunter. In the spur of the moment, Alex thrust his blade into the torso of the beast and threw it up in the air. The hunter wasn't finished yet, but it was bleeding a lot. Alex jumped in the air and as the hunter was twirling horizontally, Alex used his blade to cut it into two. The hunter pieces fell to the ground with Alex following quickly behind. The Captain had pulled out a grenade launcher and started firing some rounds on the hunter. The hunter however was being injured but not enough to slow it down completely.

"Aw hell." said Alex. He sprinted towards the hunter and as he approached, he sliced through the hunter in a matter of seconds. The use of the blade was much easier than it had ever been before, it even felt lighter. As Alex finished off another hunter, he spoke to the Captain.

"You sure you don't want to take a breather?" asked Alex smirking. The Captain shot three grenades at a target behind Alex, which happened to be a hunter that was just beginning to slam a fist down on top of Alex.

"Naaah, I'm good!" said the Captain smirking back. Alex turned and looked to around to find the other hunters. Looking all around though, they were no where to be seen. Though everyone else thought they were gone, Alex could feel their presence. It felt to him like they were close, but could also not be seen. Alex's eyes flashed orange, and he looked around to see if the hunters could be detected. Just as he thought, the two hunters left were clinging to the walls of the buildings encircling them. Alex began to think about what to do. The soldiers were starting to come out, and by the time he told them to hide again, at least one of the hunters would get to them and undoubtedly kill everyone. Alex looked at his blade and remembered what Allen had said.

_"With Mesitone flowing in your body, you will have access to powers that you've never experienced before as well as being able to fuse your powers together. I'll let you experiment with that on the field though."_ he said as Alex remembered the information. He looked at his blade again, then back at the hunters clinging to the sides.

_"They are a long ways away and I need to finish them in one blow. Which means..."_ thought Alex. He began to summon more of his power as he brought forth his blade but with a brand new twist. He smiled and after charging his throw, threw his blade at one hunter on one of the building walls, then thrust it over to the other hunter that had let out a howl and already jumped toward the soldiers. Once the blade hit, the hunter was cut in half immediately and smashed into the ground. Alex smirked and reeled in his blade.

"Just like I thought; blade and whip together makes an amazing combo." he thought. The Captain completely surprised at the hunter that was cut in half and dead on the ground already, looked to Alex like he almost had a heart attack.

"What the hell was that? We couldn't see the hunters and you pull some kind of shit like that with out giving us some sort of heads up!" yelled the Captain. Alex explained.

"The hunters were waiting for the right moment to attack you. I couldn't have told you guys to return to hiding, because the hunters would have realized that it was an alert and they would have attacked anyways. Had they done so, I could have stopped at least one of them, but the other would have gotten to you guys and kill you like bugs." said Alex. The Captain nodded, reluctantly agreeing that Alex was probably right.

"For now, when you do try and make a move like that, tell us first so we don't end up shitting our pants and die." said the Captain. Alex nodded and looked at the sky. It was a dark red color with black clouds and things were looking really grim.

"How far are we away from the base?" asked Alex. The Captain turned to Private Jones and asked.

"Distance from military base?" asked the Captain. Jones opened up his backpack and brought out a little laptop and estimated the checked the distance on the computer.

"Estimated distance: 3.14 miles, Estimated time: 2 hrs 23 minutes." said Private Jones. The captain nodded and looked to Alex.

"Looks like we only have about a little ways to go..." said the Captain as he got a call on a walkie-talkie.

"Transmission 287: Come in Captain Daze. Over." said the talkie. The Captain grabbed it from his shoulder harness where it was hanging and responded back.

"Go for Captain Daze. What is your location and identification number. Over" he spoke. Everyone listened in on the conversation.

"Identification code: 136XBR38. I am about 2.8 miles away from your position and gaining distance. Over." said a man's voice.

"What is your current occupation? Over." asked the Captain.

"Sir, I am piloting an AH64-A Apache. I am here to offer air support and to guide you as quickly as possible to our military base, over."

"Good, 'cause we sure as hell could use it right now. Over." said the Captain.

"Affirmative. Over and out." said the man's voice as the walkie-talkie's connection was terminated. The captain replaced his walkie-talkie on his backpack and spoke to his troops.

"Alright! Everyone, keep your eyes pealed towards the sky. We're looking for an AH64-A Apache offering assistance. Aleveraz, Sanderson, light a couple of flares to help our man in the sky out!" said the Captain. Sanderson and Alveraz pulled out their flares and lit them. The red and blue smoke flew up toward the sky, giving a signal to the helicopter. It only took a couple of minutes for the helicopter to show up and offer assistance. On the helicopter, a mega-phone spoke aloud.

"Are you alright! Here to offer air support and guidance. Follow me!" said the helicopter as it slowly began to move forward as the soldiers on foot followed behind as quickly as they could. They travel about thirty minutes before walkers and hunters began to show up again. Alex brought out his blade again and defeated the hunters quickly, along with a little help from the helicopter over head firing machine guns, and rocket launchers. Captain Daze and the other soldiers were firing away at the walkers as they tried to attack them. It was only about seven minutes later when the real trouble started. The team and Alex were about .45 miles away from the base, when a leader Hunter screamed from the top of the buildings. Alex looked at it and suddenly brought out his blade and whip again. Though Alex came close to hitting the leader hunter, he missed and there for failed to protect the helicopter as the leader hunter smashed through it in a second. Alex reeled in his blade again and proceeded up a building to try and get closer to the monster. On the top of the building where the leader hunter howled to call for assistance, Alex turned his blade and whip, back into a regular blade.

"I'll take you down before your hunter friends can even get here!" shouted Alex. He ran towards the leader hunter as it's large monstrous claw came down trying to smash Alex. Instead, Alex jumped on top of the hunter's claw and jumped toward the hunter's head to cut it open some. The hunter howled in pain and was pretty much blinded by the sight and smell of blood instead of Alex. Even though the Hunter was feeling much pain, the hunter waved another arm down on Alex, crushing him into the floor of the top of the building. Alex got up as quickly as he could and jumped away to gain some distance. As the hunter began charging at him, Alex remembered other words that Allen had said.

"With Mesitone running through your body, you'll also be able to double your powers as well." said Allen as Alex remembered. Upon remembering this, Alex concentrated his power into his other arm. When there was once one blade, Alex's other arm turned into a second. The hunter came for him, and just when the hunter was about to attack, Alex dug both of his blades into the hunter's stomach and ripped across in different directions causing the hunter even more pain. With these two swords, Alex put his two blades together which morphed into one. He jumped up, and like before flipped and swung down towards the hunter, but this time, as he swung, the blade extended several extra feet making the impact that much more powerful.

The leader hunter was down in less time than Alex could keep track of, and he separated his giant two-handed blade for a regular single armed blade. Once this was done, Alex returned to his team as soon as he could. Just when he arrived, the soldiers began firing at a couple of hunters headed towards them. It didn't matter to Alex. He raced towards each other the hunters, both of them running and closing in just on Alex. Just when they attacked, Alex's other hand turned into a second blade and cut through both of them across the waist. It was over before any of them knew it; well, any of them except for Alex at least. Once the Attack was over, Alex's arms returned to regular hands and he reported back to the Captain.

"Alex! That was incredible!" he said giving much praise to Alex. Alex nodded and pointed down the road they were traveling.

"When I was fighting the leader hunter, I saw a glimpse of the military base. We're almost there, just a block or two away. Think we can rush all the way there?" asked Alex. The Captain nodded and turned to his troops.

"We're moving now! Sprint all the way to the military base. Follow Alex Mercer as the lead!" he yelled. The soldiers did as they were told and sprinted like their lives depended on it. Only minutes later, the Captain's team appeared at the gates of the military base. Alex took a deep breath as he entered and looked back at all the soldiers following him. No one was killed and he was able to save everyone, at least this time. He waited by the entrance of the military base and made sure everyone got with in the perimeter safely. Upon the Captain's entry, another man from the base came forward and shook hands with Captain Daze.

"Welcome to the military base Sacramento, California branch. My name is First Lieutenant Hawk. Is your team alright?" he asked. Captain Daze nodded.

"Affirmative, all troops gathered and accounted for sir. We're tired and have traveled for most of the day but we have pulled through." said Captain Daze. The general smiled and nodded. He crossed both of his arms behind his back and began walking into the base.

"Come with me Captain. There are some things we need to discuss for the upcoming assault." he said. Captain daze nodded and turned to Alex.

"Thank you Alex, tremendous job today with the assistance. I think you already deserve a promotion. Congratulations, you've just been promoted to Corporal." said Captain Daze with a smile. He quickly followed after the First Lieutenant and left Alex to stand alone, trying to embrace the miraculous promotion. Alex smiled and thought in his head.

"_Corporal Alex Mercer? In one day when I wasn't even a private? I think I made the best career choice of my life_!" he thought. Alex went over to go join the other troops as they all walked in wearily, but completely safe within the military base's walls, at least, that's what Alex hoped...


	6. Chapter 6 Bonding

Chapter 6

Bonding

Wow... I'm a jerk in every sense of the word. I hope you guys don't hate me for holding out on you. I've been busy around the house and kickin' some ass on PS3! Anyway, here's my long awaited chapter 6 of this fanfic! Again, SORRY! To all my fellow highschool students: HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

First Lieutenant Hawk and Captain Daze walked down a hallway in the military base with Alex following behind Daze. As they continued walking down the hallway, they made it to the end with a big red door. Hawk opened the door for both Alex and Daze and then entered after them. Inside the room were a bunch of scientists working at machines and sitting at desks. Hawk looked behind him and spoke to both Alex and Daze.

"I'm glad you're both here! We really need your guys's help." said Hawk as he continued walking over to a table in a smaller separate room than the one they had just entered. Once they were all inside and the door was shut behind theme. They all took a seat. "So here's the situation. As you saw on your way here, most of Sacramento is already taken over and destroyed. The infected have seemed to suddenly break out and are currently growing in number. Our only safe place for all Sacramento citizens is inside this military base, away from the infected, and protected from becoming infected." said Hawk. "But even so, our defenses will not last forever. Eventually, we will meet our day with the infected when they breach our walls and try to kill all of us." Hawk looked at Daze and then looked at Alex. "We've seen it on the news and have gotten reports from other military operatives. What you can do and the kind of person you are, it's exactly the kind of help we need right now. Please, we are in deep need of your assistance, Alex Mercer." Hawk turned to Daze as he stood up. "And you too Captain. We'll need all the help we can get." captain daze nodded and saluted.

"Yes sir! We'll offer you all of our services and abilities to you." said Captain. Hawk nodded and began to leave the room.

"In a couple hours, I want you and all your men to meet up with Erick Witers in the main briefing room. He'll brief your team and especially Alex Mercer on your next assignments. I wish you the best of luck." said Hawk as he left for good out the door. Daze turned to Alex and smiled as Alex just looked at him plainly.

"Thanks, Alex. I'm glad we all got here safe and sound. But now it looks like we have some work to do. Let's go." said Daze moving out of the room with Alex following behind. They went down the Hallway they came from, made a few lefts and rights and met up with the rest of Daze's team in the briefing room. As they entered the room, all the troops were all laughing at a smart-ass joke told by one of the troops. Daze and Alex arrived with daze joining the group and getting in on what was happening.

"Captain Daze! Sir, we apologize for the commotion." said one of the soldiers. Daze nodded.

"It's quite alright. I'm just glad to see you all here and smiling." said Daze. All the troops looked at Alex who was standing off to the side with his hands in his pockets. Alex looked to them and gave a short 'sup' movement with his head. From the group of soldiers came Private Stuart from before on the helicopter. Alex looked at him completely neutral seeming uninterested. Private Stuart spoke.

"Um... Alex er... I believe that I'd like to apologize for my immature behavior back on the heli. It wasn't right of me to treat you that way after giving us a big hand in our mission. Thanks." said Stuart. Alex seemed surprised and looked at Stuart with a mild smile. Alex stuck a hand out and shook hands with Stuart, accepting his apology.

"It's cool." said Alex. Everyone including Captain Daze acknowledged the scene and nodded slowly at Stuart's action. Through the doors came Erick Witers holding a suit case and wearing big funny black glasses.

"Good Day squad A-190R. My name is Eric Witers. I'm here to brief you on your new assignments. Would agents Corporal Mercer and Private Stuart please clarify yourselves." he said. Alex, the captain and a few others rose their hands to Eric. "You two and eight other troops from this branch are going on a recon mission to the Hive in the middle of Sacramento. Here you shall send reports on the damage you have seen and find a way to infiltrate so that our men can get inside and take out the infected at their core." said Eric.

"With all do respect Mr. Witers, why haven't you tried to infiltrate the hive in the first place with your own men?" asked Captain Daze. Eric looked to him and nodded.

"The difference this time is that we have Alex Mercer on our side! With him, we can definitely force our way into the hive. When we do, we'll have a slim chance of saving whatever is left of Sacramento!" said Eric. Everyone voiced in agreement.

"So what is it that you want us to do exactly?" asked Private Stuart. Eric opened up his brief case, pulled out a file and set it out on a table.

"You and Alex are going to force your way into the hive and make your way to floor 29. At that floor, we want you to destroy what we call here at Sacramento, the core. The core is responsible for the main reproduction of infected breeding. If you destroy this, the infected will act up and start rampaging, but they will no longer be able to reproduce any lost soldiers and will therefore be easier to exterminate. It seems simple enough, but then again I'm not going out there and I'm not a soldier." said Eric. Alex looked to Stuart as Stuart did the same. They both looked back to Eric and nodded.

"We understand. When do we deploy?" asked Private Stuart.

"Twenty-five minutes. Hurry up." said Eric as he packed up his suitcase and left the briefing room. After he left, Alex and Stuart turned to Captain Daze.

"Private Stuart..." said Captain Daze as he looked at Stuart, then at Alex, and then back to Stuart. "...will you be okay?" he asked. Stuart saluted to the Captain.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." he said with confidence in his eyes. The Captain sighed, nodded and looked to Alex.

"Mercer, good luck. Try to save as many guys out there as you can." he said. Alex smirked and nodded.

"Of course. That's why I'm here." said Alex. After the short words of good lucks and good-byes, Alex and Stuart took their leave and headed to the eight other soldiers that were coming on the mission. On the other side of the Military Base, Alex and Stuart suited up and refilled all ammo and supplies. Once prepared accordingly, Alex and Stuart went to meet up with the other eight troops in the deployment room.

Alex and Stuart entered into the room all geared up and headed over to the other soldiers who were themselves speaking and preparing for the up coming mission.

"Are you Private Stuart and Corporal Mercer?" asked a soldier as both of them approached. Stuart came forward and saluted the soldier.

"Yes sir! Private Stuart and Corporal Mercer at your service." said Stuart. The soldier looked at both of them and glared at Alex who was standing there seeming uninterested.

"Glad to have you join us. I am Sergeant Kyle Richards. We leave in five minutes, so hurry up." he said leaving both of them with a cold shoulder. Alex looked at Stuart as Stuart looked back at him.

"Man, what an asshole. And we have to take orders from him?" said Stuart laughing a bit. Alex just remained silent as Stuart continued to laugh. "You should try to lighten up. Don't worry about these guys, we got each other's backs, right?" said Stuart sticking a fist out to Alex. Alex looked at him with surprise and then smiled. Alex made fist as well and bumped both of them together.

"No." said Alex as he continued walking toward a truck where the soldiers were loading up. "It's up to me to watch everyone's backs. That's why I'm here after all." said Alex with a smile. Stuart nodded and smiled as he followed behind Alex into the truck. Next stop, the Sacramento Hive.


	7. Chapter 7 Deadly Devastator

Chapter 7

Deadly Devastator

Soon after the truck carrying the soldiers departed from the military base, the walkers and other infected roamed the streets and the ruins of buildings. The truck sped along as fast as it could with every soldier firing their guns outside the truck to kill any infected that came along. The only soldier that was outside of the truck was Alex who was taking out infected as the truck moved to the hive. Alex brought out his hammer arms and began blasting away large areas of infected by slamming down on the ground beneath him and causing a large earthquake and a shockwave to kill many infected that were in his way.

After about twenty five minutes, the truck had stopped and Alex had destroyed as many infected as he could once they reached the Sacramento capitol. When they arrived, they couldn't believe what they saw. The capitol was almost completely covered in infected blood with flames burning out of some of the windows, the worst part though, was that the entire building was nearly broken down to the ground. The soldiers and Alex came up to the ruins of the capitol and examined the area.

"What the hell happened here? The hive was in perfect condition yesterday." said Sergeant Richards. "Is it destroyed?" he asked hopefully. Alex came forward and looked at the damage of the place.

"No. Definitely not." said Alex. The Sergeant looked to him and crossed his arms.

"Really! And how would you know that?" he said. Alex pointed with his finger to direct the troops and the Sergeant. On the ground were a bunch of wavy bumpy lines on the ground.

"See these marks? I've seen them before back in Manhattan. The hive hasn't been destroyed, just moved. All of it." said Alex. He began following the trail. "I've seen this happen before. All the infected center around a hive and try to move it to a different location. They always leave behind these funny looking marks in the ground." said Alex. The Sergeant didn't seem impressed with Alex's extraordinary observation, but came up behind Alex as he followed the trail.

"So do you know where they moved it?" asked the Sergeant.

"By the look of these tracks, I'd say that the bastards moved the hive underground. Really deep underground. If we follow these tracks, we should be able to find the hole that they used to bring down the hive." said Alex. The Sergeant nodded and turned to his men.

"Everyone, follow Corporal Mercer. He knows where the hive is located so we need to hurry behind him. Let's go!" he ordered and there were no questions asked from the troops. They al followed Alex as he led them along the strange marks. A little ways to the east, Alex stopped at a big indent in the ground.

"This is it." said Alex. The Sergeant looked at the indent and back at Alex.

"Where's the hole!" asked the Sergeant.

"I think the infected covered up the hole with a layer of dirt and rock. This is new even for me." said Alex. The Sergeant looked down at the indent and pulled out a walkie talkie from his utility belt.

"Come in Blackbase 27, this is Sergeant Kyle Richards requesting bomb strike about half a mile east from the Sacramento Capitol. Request is almighty. Over." said Sergeant Richards. About six minutes later, a helicopter came from over head with a bomb attached to the bottom.

"Identification code: 271AXV60. Pilot code name Ricochet here to establish mini bomb airstrike; please evacuate the area. Bomb launch go in 1 minute." said a voice on the walkie talkie. Alex and everyone else ran away from the bomb sight in about thirty seconds and let the helicopter drop the bomb. Once the bomb dropped on the ground, an explostion took place that whiped out everything in a twenty feet radius. ONce the spectacular display of fire was over, Alex and the other troops and moved to the indent in the ground and found that the hole that the infect made was much much bigger than what everyone thought. From inside the deep deep hole, rumbling and growling could be heard and Alex's face turned to alarmed.

"Everyone get back! We're about to be hit by a lot of infected!" yelled Alex bringing out his claws and turning to everyone. "Load your guns and everything! Get ready!" he said. Everyone did as Alex said and loaded their guns, except for Private Stuart who came up from the group and came next to Alex.

"Mercer! What's wrong?" asked Stuart.

"Apparently that explosion set them off and they're coming for us." he said. Right after he finished saying that, a walker with a large sword arm jumped up from inside the crater and tried to attack Alex from behind.

"Alex! Look out!" yelled Stuart and pointed at the on coming monster. Stuart tried to pull out his pistol, but was too late. The walker fell on top of Alex trying to bite into his neck from behind. "Alex!" yelled Stuart. A second later, Large black spike came out of Alex's back, stabbing through the walker and making blood spew all behind Alex. A second later, the spikes rushed back into Alex's body and the walker fell back down the hole with many large holes in it's body.

"Well, that was new!" said Alex watching the walker fall deeper and deeper until it could no longer be seen.

"Alex, what the hell was that!" yelled Stuart pointing at Alex.

"Apparently, a new power." said Alex. The ground began to rumble beneath Alex's feet and he grabbed Private Stuart and jumped out and away from the crater. When they both landed safely away, all the troops began firing at the walkers that were climbing out of the ground hissing and growling.

"Don't you EVER pick me up like that again!" yelled Private Stuart. Alex put him down and jumped away with his claws even longer and sharper than normal. Alex landed in a large crowd of infected near the mouth of the crater. Alex, using his claws, sliced and diced a large crowd of walkers that were trying to jump on top of him. But Alex quickly switched to his hammer arms and pounded them away using a large amount of biomass in his arms. After that, Alex grew spikes on his hammer arms and threw them far, that's right, threw them, by combining his powers of hammer arm and whip powers. By doing this, he would be able to cause a lot of area damage and take out a lot of infected at once. All he had to do though, was be careful about not hitting any military operatives.

"Alright you bastards, take this!" yelled Alex as the hammer arms landed on the ground causing a large impact and killing a large number of infected. After the impact, Alex reeled in his whip while dragging the hammer on the ground. As he dragged it, he swerved it this way and that to avoid hitting any of the troops. After it was reeled back in, Alex's arms went back to claws and he jumped to where a large pile of infected were piling on top of some of the troops. Being as careful and quick as he could be, Alex swiped his claws against the flesh of the infected walkers and saved five soldiers that were in trouble.

"Alex! We can't keep this up forever! Please! Hurry up and take care of all of them! We're pulling back!" yelled Sergeant Richards as he began running with the rest of the troops away from the rest of the infected. When all the other soldiers had ran away far enough, Alex withdrew his claws inside his body and began to gather energy. After a moment of preparation, infected began to pile on top of him to bite and claw him anywhere they could find opportunity. Once Alex was ready, he threw his arms and chest outward and let his power unleash. All around Alex's body, large black and red spikes came from inside of him expanding quickly and sharply. All infected that were caught with in a 200 hundred foot radius were eliminated. After the devastator attack, Alex looked around him at the damage he had done. This new devastator he had used was stronger than any other devastator than before.

"Sergeant Richards! Is everyone okay!" yelled Alex as everyone began running towards him cheering at the victory.

"Good work Corporal. we've got to keep moving." was the Sergeant's way of saying thank you. Alex sighed as the Sergeant went passed him and went to look down the hole leading deep into the earth. After all the troops passed Alex, Private Stuart came up to Alex and threw a five five in the air.

"Don't worry about the Sergeant and those other guys, you really did a great job! You saved our necks out there." said Stuart. Alex high-fived with Stuart and nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks." said Alex. Private Stuart left Alex to join the rest of the team. From behind all of them, Alex made a count of people.

"1,2,3,4,...10." thought Alex. A smile worked it's way across Alex's face. "Good. Everyone is safe." he continued to think. Alex couldn't understand why he cared that everyone was safe. A couple weeks ago, Alex didn't care if he took one human life or a thousand. But now, Alex cared that they did live or die, and he was doing his best to make sure that everyone was safe. At this moment Alex realized another reason for coming in and joining Blackwatch. Working with them might not only provide for him a cure, but also help restore his humanity. Alex smiled at the thought and headed forward with the team to lead into the hive.


	8. Chapter 8 Finding the Core

Chapter 8

Finding the core

The smell inside the deep hole of the hive was terrible. It smelled of raw meat and dried blood and something else that no one knew what to call it, but it just added to the stink. Hell, the entire place smelled like they were in a toilet full of rotting meat and shit. When everybody made it to the bottom of the hole and began walking on the inside, the floor was covered in red veiny vines all over the place. Once they started walking, Richards shouted from the front.

"Alright boys, set up the N-vision goggles, we're going dark." said Sergeant Richard. Everyone reached into their backpacks and slipped on the head gear. Instead of using the goggles that were given to him, Alex donated them to someone who didn't have a pair and used his infected vision to see. On the inside, the entire tunnel was gigantic on the inside and looked like it was dug out from the sides because everything was all bumpy.

"Corporal Mercer! Take the lead!" said Sergeant Richards. Alex jumped over everyone and began walking through the tunnel. With everyone following behind him, Alex could feel like they were being watched. He stoped all of them and took a couple steps forward. Using his new spike powers, he pointed both of his arms down the tunnel. "You guys are really annoying." said Alex. There was a loud screech that echoed inside the cave as Alex let his spikes loose as they soared down the tunnel and stabbing into the sides of the tunnel all at the same time. Like a gigantic forest of thorns and spikes had come out of Alex's arms. Alex withdrew his spikes and saw twenty dead infected walkers fall from the cieling and the walls of the tunnel. Everyone was shocked at Alex's peripheral senses. "These bastards are getting smarter. They sent walkers to stick to the shadows of the cave to servalence any intruders. Too bad, that they couldn't come up with anything stronger." said Alex. At this point, Alex began to move forward again down the tunnel. Towards the end, Alex could hear the other men begin to load their guns. At the end of the tunnel was a large, deformed cocoon looking structure with a bunch of holes leading into the inside. As they all stepped closer, Alex looked at all the soldiers behind him.

"All right, listen up. From here, we'll split up into two groups: One will stay out here and guard from anything getting inside. The second will come with me into the hive to destroy the core. Once we do, the hive should die fairly quickly and we'll need to get out of here just as fast." said Sergeant Richards. The entire team nodded as Richards turned to Alex. "You'll be staying outside, Corporal. If anything gets in, we might not be able to get out. Therefore, it is vitally important that you make sure nothing gets inside. Understood?" asked Sergent Richards. Alex nodded and moved with the group that was staying outside.

"Good luck, Alex!" said Private Stuart. Alex smiled and gave hima thumbs up as he left with the others inside the hive. FOr awhile, Alex waited outside with the others for anything to come a long and try to attack. However minutes later, one of the other soldier's radio started beeping. The soldier answered the radio and spoke into it.

"This is Private Sanderson. What's going on?" he asked.

"We need Corporal Mercer down here stat! We're surrounded!" said Private Stuart's voice.

"Alright, we're sending him in. Corporal-" Before the soldier could finish his sentence, Alex had already gone into the hive. He busted through using his hammer arm powers and automatically jumped in. It was dark in the dpeths of the hive, but their were flares that were scattered on the ground to make it easier to see. Regardless, Alex pulled out his thermal vision to look at the inside of the hive. He could hear gunfire at the far end of the tunnel as he ran toward them as fast as he could. At the end of the tunnel, there were fifty something infected walkers surounding and closing in on the soldiers in the middle using all of their firepower to attack the monsters. Alex had no time to lose as he changed his arms to claws and jumped into the monsters and started slicing. The body count was incredible as they were all decimated in only a few seconds.

"Alex! Thank God you're here!" said private Stuart. Alex gave him a thumbs up as his hands and arms returned to normal.

"Of course." said Alex. Sargent Richards came forward and shook Alex's hand.

"Thanks. We really owe you one." he said with a firm grip. Alex nodded and looked down one of the other tunnels.

"If you owe me one, I know what you can let me do." said Alex. Richards looked at him with a questionable look.

"What's that?" he asked. Alex looked at him and nodded.

"Let me go on ahead by myself. Allow me to destroy the core on my own." said Alex demandingly.

"What! Out of the question! That's suicide!" he yelled as he denied his request. Alex looked down the tunnel again and began to explain.

"Sir, if I may speak. There is something very massive down those tunnels. If one of our top priorities is to preserve the life of others, then allowing me to go alone is our best shot. Plus, you needed my help shortly after just entering the hive. You think that you have any real chance of effectiveness against what lies ahead? I highly doubt it." said Alex. Sargent Richards gritted his teeth and looked away. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Alex was right.

"I suppose you're right." said Richards. He looked at Alex as a fire had been lit in his stomach. "But even so, we joined Blackwatch so we could fight against the virus and to save our world. If we run away when we're supposed to be doing our job, we become cowards and weaklings in the eyes of those above us." said Richards. Alex nodded.

"I realize that." he said. Richards nodded as Alex had agreed. "But don't think of it as running away." said Alex. Richards seemed confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked. Alex smiled at him and turned towards the tunnel.

"You aren't running away. You're clearing the path. I am the Blacklight virus in case you had forgotten." said Alex. At this point, Richards looked at him with aw, finally beginning to understand. "I am the one an only cure against the Redlight virus; and even though I'm not considered human anymore, I still possess the ability to share grief for my fellows." said Alex.

"Y-You're..." said Richards almost taken away by Alex's words.

"Get everyone out of here before things start to get really ugly." said Alex as he started walking down the tunnel to where the core was. As he left them behind, Sargent Richards looked to his underlings and nodded.

"Okay boys, you heard the man! Let's give him our support and get the hell out of here! I'll call for an extraction team as soon as we get to the mouth of the crater! Let's move!" he said throwing a hand up in the air.

"Yes sir!" they all yelled as they followed his command and headed out of the hive and to the entrance of the tunnel. Half-way through on their way back, Private Stuart was following behind Sergent Richards looking back at the hive where they had left Alex behind.

"Is something the matter, Private?" asked Richards. Stuart nodded and looked at the Sargent with eyes of strict determination.

"Sir! Alex Mercer used to be an enemy of mine, but is now a dear friend who has saved me and all my comrades from squad A-190R. I made a promise to myself to help him out in anyway I could to pay him back for saving my life. With your permission sir, I would like to go back and help Alex, even though I might serve as a distraction for him." said Private Stuart. He knew that this request was a long shot, but he couldn't let Alex be the one to carry all their burdens. Richards looked at him in silence and nodded with a small grin.

"Your loyalty to your friend and commanding officer is greatly admired and appreciated. If you think that there is someway you can help, go on and do what you can." said Sargent Richards. Knowing that he had taken a huge step forward, Private Stuart nodded and sprinted back to the hive to assist Alex in his fight. As Sargent Richards continued down the tunnel, he smiled in thought of Alex.

"Corporal Mercer, you're... really on our side in this fight... aren't you?" he thought. Richards smiled and caught up with his crew as they headed down the tunnel and to the hole where they came in. "Good luck to the both of you."


	9. Chapter 9 Destroy the Core

Chatper 9

Destroy the Core!

Alex headed down the tunnel to the end where the core laid. He could already see it and he was more than halfway through the tunnel. It was a large perfect sphere of glowing and beating energy surrounded in the remains of the Redlight virus. Alex approached it with his claws equiped and he stepped forward and glared at it.

"Looks like this is it." he said raising a claw. "All that's left is to destroy you!" said Alex. He nodded and was ready to send a hand flying to pierce through the core. But right before he was about to strike, the ground beneath him began to shake. "W-What!" said Alex. He jumped up from the ground and moved toward a wall while in the air. He grabbed a hold tightly and watched as a creature began to show itself from the depths of the earth. The ground exploded as Alex saw rock and other flying debris whizz through the air, some of it almost hitting Alex. After the explosion of earth, a large monster appeared, almost as big as the room he was in. It had three large heads and two much larger mouths hanging in the front of it's big and massive body. It had three large legs on both sides of the blob monster each given six toes of sharp bone. It had thousands of bone like spikes coming from it's back and two long tails with one ending with a sharp stabbing bone and the other was a large club at the tip with sharp bones coming out of it. All in all, this monster was gigantic and down-right ugly. Alex looked at it as one of the heads shifted it's view to Alex. "Alright, fine! I guess this wasn't supposed to be easy in the first place." said Alex. He decided to try a new combination with his powers. At the same time he was using his claws, he brought out his hammer-arms and fused them with his claws. Now, his claws wieghed about five tons each and he was stil able to lift them without a single problem. Alex jumped from the wall and headed straight for the head of the beast, and just when he was about to make contact, one of the tails hit Alex away at an amazing speed. After taking the hit, Alex regained his balance while flying through the air and landed on a wall again. "Okay, well it looks like this thing isn't as slow as I thought. I'm gonna have to step it up a knotch." said Alex. He jumped again and was more aware of the tail this time around. As he flew through the air, the fast tail tried to hit him twice, and each time was close. After missing, Alex landed on it's back and headed for the heads. As he as on the move though, the back of the monster began to split apart and make more and more spikes appear from the inside of it's body. With spikes coming in from down below, Alex had to jump and make a run for it at the head. He hurried along and with his even faster reflexes, dodged a last minute attack of spikes from the monster's back and reached one of the heads. As Alex was on top of it, the entire monster moved around as much as it could to try and shake him off. Alex stuck one of his claws into the thick hide of the beast to keep from falling off. After tiring out some, Alex used his claws and started slashing a whaling on the head and slicing the monster into bits. As the head was about ready to burst, Alex jumped away and grabbed on to a wall again as he watched the moster flail in pain after thehead fell off the body and blood poured out like the niagra falls. Alex smirked and spoke aloud: "One down, two to go." He watched as the two mouths opened up wide and spewed a horibly smelly acid out of it's body. Alex jumped away as he saw that the acid comepletey disintegrated the wall as soon as it made contact. "I better watch out for that." said Alex. The monster began to spit the acid in rapid movements, making Alex jump all over the room. When he was about to be hit by the acid, Alex was knocked down to the ground as a large foot of the monster crushed down on top of him. With Alex's newfound strength though, he used both of his hands to try and hold up the force of the foot coming down from the beast. "Y-You bastard!" yelled Alex as he was about to lose in his struggle for dominance. As the foot pressed down, gunshots were heard from the enterance of the room. Alex cast a gaze over to the mouth of the tunnel and was both horrified, yet relieved to see Private Stuart shoot his bullets at the monster's head to try and cause damage. The fast tail that nearly got Alex, moved fast to try and take out Private Stuart, but he was already on his way down to Alex long before the tail could move.

"Alex! I'm here to help!" he yelled shooting at the leg that had trapped Alex down on the ground.

"No! Stuart, don't!" said Alex. "This is too big for you!" Stuart ignored him and pulled out a grenade launcher to complement his bullets. With a good shot, Private Stuart hit the leg and stunnded the beast to allow Alex to get up from the ground, grabb Stuart to keep him from harm and took him up to higher ground. Once they had a moment, Alex spoke with Stuart.

"What in the hell were you thinking!" he yelled. Stuart rubbed the back of his head. "You do know that I didn't ask for your help. In fact, I remember back there that I asked for you to let me handle it." said Alex. Stuart looked down and nodded.

"I know what you said Alex; I heard you loud and clear." Stuart looked up holding his gun tightly. "But you and I are friends now, and in my book, my friends and family always come before my job. So that means, I'll help you whether you need it or not." said Stuart. Alex let out a sigh as he saw the beast start to get edgey. Alex looked to Stuart, smiled and nodded.

"Okay then. If you wanna help, fine. Try not to get killed and stay out of my way if you can help it." said Alex as he abandoned Stuart and left to go continue the fight. The monster was really angry now, but Alex had brought out two whips with each of them epquipped with a hammer arm power. Using both of them, Alex started breaking the spikes on the creature's back as Stuart used his gun to try and shoot the eyes of the monster's other heads. What Alex needed to do was to use his two blade powers and try to slice off the heads of the beast to kill it, but it wouldn't be as simple as jumping toward the heads and slicing them off. No, Alex would need to find a different way to do it. He looked and watched as the tail with the club this time moved to catch Alex in thought. Alex jumped away at the last second, allow ing the club to hit the ground and cause a large crevise to open up and see a couple hundred feet down the crust. That club contained devastating power; even more so than Alex's hammar arms. First thing to do would to cut the tails off to slow it down. Alex was on the move and jumped away from the wall he was hanging on and with his two blades equipped, he stopped himself on the wall opposite of him and he slammed down his two blades at the base of the monster's tails. As they completely cut through the hide of the monster, a loud growl of pain erupted from both mouths of the creature. Alex smirked now knowing that it would be much faster to take it out.

"Great job Alex!" said Stuart, cheering him on. Alex nodded at Stuart from the other side of the room and nodded.

"Instead of congradulating me, why don't you shoot your grenade launcher at the eyes of the heads!" yelled Alex. Upon command, Stuart fired two rounds of grenades at the monster's eyes. One missed, but one was a direct hit, blinding it from ever seeing again. With the beast in such a terrible shape now, Alex decided to use his new powers. He jumped as high as he could and used his new spike powers to cut through the monster quickly. When he used these new powers, Alex's body didn't really change. All that was different was that when Alex willed it, he stuck out a straight arm and a black spike about twice his arm in length appeared in his hands. With these, they were a lot lighter than Alex's blade, so he was faster than normal with attacks. However, the Blade powers were used for mass destruction and didn't just cut and slice, but also ripped and crushed anything he hit. These new spikes were more for a precision attack. Anyways, with his spikes pointing out of his arms, Alex used his spikes to tear through the monster's skin, making blood and guts pour out of it's body from the injuries. But that didn't mean it was over. Since the beast could no longer see, it started to thrash about inside the room, making everything shake. Alex jumped away from the monster and stood next to stuart as they watched the monster squrim.

"Let's finish this." said Stuart and pointed his gun at the monster. Alex nodded and made his thin swords appear. Using them, he jumped toward the creature's head and started to jabb and stab them into the monster's skull. Alex looked at Stuart as he fired his gun at the monster while running towards it. The beast was about done and was loosing the will to fight.

"Stuart! Back off! I'm gonna finish this!" yelled Alex. Stuart nodded and started to run away to take cover as Alex leaped off the monster's head and landed on the ground. Alex hurried underneath the monster to it's underbelly and drew in his thin swords. Alex began to summon energy inside his body, and when it was all collected, Alex unleashed it all at the same time. With Alex being the center of the devestator, large black spikes came out from all around his body and expanded to such a degree, that they immediately pierced through the monster's body entirely.

"You did it!" yelled Stuart. The creature began to collapse on top of Alex as he reverted back to normal. The monster's body flopped on the ground with a thud as Alex moved from underneath it and stood by Stuart as he looked at it with such a disgust in his eyes. "I can't believe we actually destroyed this thing." said Stuart. Alex nodded and looked behind them as the core remained as it was; comepletely untouched.

Let's finsih this." said Alex. Stuart nodded and watched as Alex's hands shifted to claws.

"Destory the core, Alex!" he yelled. With a movement so quick, Alex sliced open the core with one stroke of his claws as a bunch of blood and raw skin fell out of it, causing the redness of the environment around them to turn dark. Stuart was happy to see that everything was destroyed inside the hive. Alex, however, gripped his head hard as pain surged through it. He could feel something arise inside him, and he saw that it was big.

"Gaaaaa!" yelled Alex as the pain corsed through his entire body. In the middle of the pain, Alex had a vision. It showed Alex, a new power that he had obtained. He was a large spike ball almost the size of two tanks. It was rolling over the ground and was rolling straight through everything. As the vision faded so did his pain.

"Alex? What's wrong?" asked Stuart. Alex looked at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"Nothing, it's a new power. I think." said Alex.

"Really? What does it do?" asked Stuart. Alex was about to answer, when the ceiling began to fall from above. The entire place was coming down. Alex grabbed Stuart out of the way to keep him from getting crushed by falling debris.

"The whole place is coming down! We need to get out of here!" yelled Alex. He started to run for the exit, making sure that Stuart was following close behind him. Alex could feel himself begin to move faster and could feel something inside him change as his speed increased. He stopped suddenly as he saw the way before him and Stuart was cut off by fallen debris that was blocking the exit to the outside.

"We're trapped! What are we gonna do!" asked Stuart. Alex held a hand back and pushed Stuart away.

"Stand back." said Alex. With a running start, Alex jumped into the air and morphed his body in an instant to the shape of a large spike ball and rammed through the debris like there was nothing there to begin with. Using his spikesphere powers, he cruised through the debris. He reverted immediately and looked back at Stuart who followed behind him quickly.

"So, that was your new power?" asked Stuart as they hurried down the tunnel. Alex nodded as they ran full speed down the tunnel. All throughout the chase, the tunnel was colapsing behind them as Alex every now and then used his new power to get rid of the debris in front of them. As soon as they had reached the end of the tunnel, it was too late. Alex looked up and saw the clear morning sky as he heard Stuart scream as he was crushed by debris.

"STUART!" yelled Alex. only the upper part of stuart's body was visible, but it was cut up and filled with bruises as blood was dripping out of his mouth. He reached into one of his front pockets and handed a piece of paper to Alex.

"Th-That's my wife... and baby girl. C-Could you tell them for me? Th-That I'm sorry... and that I..." a surge of pain went through him as blood spewed out of his mouth from a cough. "T-Tell them that I... L-love them... so... much." he said. His dying words were his last request as Alex screamed from frustration as he jumped out of the hole and up to the surface where the other soldiers were waiting for extraction. The sergeant came up to Alex with a questioning look.

"Did you destroy the core?" asked the Sergeant. Alex nodded with tears starting to drop down his face.

"Yeah." he said. The Sergeant looked behind, and then around Alex.

"Where's Private Stuart?" asked The sergeant. Alex started to walk away with his head down. He didn't need to say anything as he held the picture of Stuart's family in his hand.


	10. Chapter 10 Evolution

Chapter 10: Evolution

Once the episode in Sacramento was finally over, Alex and the rest of the A-190R squad returned to New York after returning to the base in Sacramento. During the entire trip back home, Alex sat in depression over the grief of his friend. They hadn't been friends for long, but they had already developed a friendship that would forever plague Alex's mind.

"Alex, we're here." said Captain Daze. Alex looked out of the window of the Helicopter and saw the base a few thousand feet below them. Alex smirks and gets up off his seat and turns to Captain Daze.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" asked Alex. Captain Daze nodded.

"I suppose... this isn't like you Alex." said Captain Daze. Alex ignored him and continued.

"Let me out of the Heli right now." asked Alex. Daze looked at him like he was crazy.

"W-What!"asked Daze. Alex shrugged and waited for his reply as Daze shook his head.

"No, Corporal. I won't have you jump out of a heli without a good reason." he said. Alex nodded and headed for the door. Regardless of the captain's orders, Alex forced open the door and jumped out into the sky.

"ALEX!" yelled the captain as Alex jumped out and waved good bye to everyone on the heli. They watched him as he fell and fell until finally, wings sprouted from his back. When he started flying through the sky, Alex embraced the speed his wings gave him and flew up and next to the helicopter as he waved to them in the windows.

"What the fuck! That Son of a Bitch is flying!" said one of the soldiers. Captain Daze shook his head in amusement and watched as Alex soared through the sky. Once they had touched down back in the base, Alex made a soft, easy landing next to the helicopter.

"Corporal, that was some crazy shit in the sky back there. I should have you relieved of duty for going against direct orders like that." said Captain Daze. Alex nodded.

"Sorry sir. Don't worry, it won't happen again." said Alex.

"Good, because next time it does, I'm throwing you out of my team." he said with a smile. Alex new that he was serious, but in a joking way. Once after being de-briefed from the mission, Alex made a bee-line for the lab to meet up with Allen Nelson. Upon ALex's arrival, Allen greeted him with a small hug and a large smile.

"It's good to see you still in one peace, Alex." said Nelson jollily. Alex nodded and smiled back at Allen.

"Same for you." he said plainly.

"Come, come, I'd like to have a word with you about our agreement." said Allen. Alex nodded and followed after him into a sperate room to discuss things.

"So, how was it? Did you use any new powers?" asked Allen. Alex smirked at him and gave him a thumbs up.

"It was incredible! Things were even better than I expected! I was lighter, faster, and stronger than ever out there, so it was a real rush!" said Alex. Allen laughed again and nodded.

"That's great to hear! I'm glad that the mesitone is working for you." said Allen. Alex nodded and took a seat with Allen across from a table in the room. "So, about that infected I told you about... did you find it and consume it?" asked Allen. Alex nodded. During the fight to the hive back in Sacramento, Alex had found it and consumed it the first chance he got. Since then, he has kept the information under-wraps.

"Yeah, and I don't think you'll like what I found." said Alex. Allen leaned forward, ready to prepare himself for the worst.

"Explain." said Allen seriously.

"When I consumed the infected, I saw it's memories and I learned a few things." said Alex.

"I see."

"For one, the infected are starting to think more strategically. They are actually able to think about how to organize and plan for attacks, which is something that they haven't been able to do before." said Alex.

"What!" said Allen sounding intrigued.

"And that's not the worst of it!" said Alex. "What I saw... was the most unsightly planet I could imagine. I've seen some crazy shit before, but what I saw when I consumed that infected, I don't know, gave me chills. Everything was covered in blood and fire and there was nothing but a real hell on earth. It was... terrible beyond description of any kind."

"So what are you saying? The "End of the World", Alex?" asked Allen.

"From what I saw, it looked like it." said Alex. Allen sighed and messed up his hair by rubbing his hands through this head.

"PARIAH... what are you planning?" asked Allen to himself. There was no response from anyone.

"Sorry, Allen." said Alex. Allen looked up at Alex and smiled at him. Once returning to his normally cheery self, Allen reached for a file in a locked cabinet and showed it to Alex. "What is this?" asked Alex as he looked at the information. It was a bunch of data and diagrams based off of a strand of DNA.

"This is what I had to show you today, Alex." said Allen. Alex looked at him with a little surprise and even some fear.

"This is..."

"A copy of your DNA strand and it's recent mutation to be able to cross over large water bodies." said Allen. "I was doing some studying to try and see what had caused the mutation. But when I found the answer, it wasn't anything I expected."

"You mean...?"

"Yes, Alex. It wasn't a mutation that caused you to change, it was an evolution." said Allen. Alex listened intently to this sensitive information.

"Evolution?" he exclaimed.

"Yes. Your DNA revealed it to me that there was more to your genetic structure than I had anticipated. It turns out that your body was supposed to slowly evolve into something else with new abilities on its own. As a biologist though, I did a crappy job and did the one thing a biologist should never do: forcibly change an organism through mutation or artificial evolution down to the basic genetic level." said Allen.

"You knew this would happen!" yelled Alex in an angry tone.

"Y-Yes..." said Allen. Alex's mood changed as he formed a fist and quickly stood up to object to this.

"How could you! I thought that you were supposed to help me!" asked Alex. Allen looked down at the file and sighed.

"I know... I'm sorry, Alex. But I did have a reason. You were strong Alex, but I needed to make you stronger. I had to force you to evolve when it wasn't yet time so that finding PARIAH would be much easier and faster. I figured that we would find him before... anything bad happens, and that I would be able to synthesize a cure before any kind of harm could be fall you." said Allen. Upon hearing this, Alex understood and sat down again.

"You said you needed to make me stronger... why?" asked Alex. Allen began to explain.

"Blacklight and Redlight aren't too different in terms of genetic structure and biological ability. That means if you were going to evolve, so would the Redlight virus, which is the infected as a whole." said Allen.

"What!"

"I didn't know what kind of evolution or when it would start, but I couldn't take any chances, so I had to force your evolution so that you could keep up with the infected. I'm so... so sorry, Alex." said Allen. Alex could just feel his entire world come crumbling down.

"So then... besides the fact that the enemy is getting stronger and I'm probably screwed over... what else is there?" asked Alex.

"Well... nothing bad has happened yet due to your forced evolution, but let me know if you start to feel like your powers aren't functioning properly or if the mesitone is starting to mess with your head. Any hallucinations might cause you to go clinically insane..." said Allen. Alex knew that there was probably more, but Allen stopped knowing that things were only going to get worse.


End file.
